Go, Tie!

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This morning Loulou will go to Sammie’s for a sleep-over. I’m going down to Holiday Valley. Tonight is the ski season’s end party and friends and I will have dinner with Tyb and Jay.

I’m really going mainly for sunbathing. I plan to spend both afternoons at the pool and return home tomorrow night. Since the elevation is at 2000 feet, the sun rays will be hot and enjoyable. I’ve had it with winter.

Hmm…Today’s blog is off to a kind of girly start, what with the almost-pointe-shoes and sunbathing agenda. I’m going to go change into something that makes me feel lovelier and come back.
Happy Friday, all.

Storyteller coming home! Macy better and her Mom outfitted! Wyatt’s family united!
All of these bits of news make yesterday’s suboptimal class (whiny students who do not grasp that stating that you want an “A” is not the same as earning an “A”) a fast-fading memory.
To everyone who sent condolences yesterday–Thank you so much for your good wishes. My Aunt Lucile was 90 and had lived on her own in her home of 40+ years. She had a good run, and seemed to be enjoying her life (really liked her backyard squirrel friends) when I spoke with her a month ago. Except for loose ends (and the surprises they sometimes bring) this is a peaceful end to a long life.

Mom saw a friend the other day who has a Maltese. My goodness, y’all are tiny!! I and all my brothers and sisters outweight that little lady hands down! But what a cute, cute dog. She was sporting the puppy cut and Mom thought that was way cuter than how they are groomed for the dog shows.

Good morning. Mommy and I are now working in our adjoining cubicles.
We have no news to report.
We are both very happy that Macy is doing better, and that her maw had some “me time” yesterday. ML, Mommy said that when her momma died, she went out and bought herself a new funeral outfit. That helped her get thru what for her was very difficult. We think it may help you some too.
Is the Storyteller really home? Hip Hip Hooray!

Greetings all.
Sunbathing- does it get any better than that? If only we had some sun here, both Mama and I love to just go outside and bake like potatoes. The high heels we could do without.
Diane – aren’t students just funny? And entitled?

TC – we crossed in our posts. Yes, the Storyteller is home. And eating all the things he wouldn’t eat at Club Med, like REAL scrambled eggs, hot out of the pan.
Is your mom feeling any better. We know how stubborn she can be about going to the human v e t.

OMD! Glad!!! Congratulations! And thanks so much for letting us know. You are family, you know.
T&G, our mom…stubborn????
It is warm here, and we are both sunbathing, next to the fuzzbutt we eradicated. Heh Heh! Now, does it get any better than that? You tell me (and me).

!!!!Oh my!!!!!
I’m going to be a Plunderer Grandma!!! I’m so excited! Look how beautiful that baby is already. He/she is going to be the smartest, most creative and best looking baby ever! Thank you GLAD for the wonderful news.

That news made me forget for a moment that winter has descended again upon this town. Shovelable amounts of snow fell overnight. The man who lives in this house has a bad back. You know what that means…it means that snow can darn well sit there until the sun comes out and it melts – that’s what it means. Grrrrr.

Mollypop’s Mom: I want to go where you are going and do what you are going to do this weekend.

Rio: Like the new FOC, you should get a 200 pounder to join your household. Comparatively, you will look thin and trim and possibly avoid the brutal walks.

We have never heard of Siberian iris. How can that be?
We do want to let Wose know that Mom just this morning ordered 3 of the Siberian Bugloss from the site she found for her last year. The “planty” name is Brunnera macrophylla. We used to have tons of those, and every time a new one came up, Mom said it was time for another Sibe. But when our stone wall was rebuilt last year, we lost them.

Mom is contemplating a big change in career. As you know, she has been a computer geek for almost as long as there have been computers. She is called an Engineer, and yet she does not drive a train. Go figure.
The new position she is thinking of trying for is a Communication Administrator. As you can imagine, this would be a big change, and she has no idea if she would be considered. She began dialogue with the manager who has the position opening. She will need to decide whether or not to post by Monday!!! Yikes!!!

Fellow Sibers, Remember Rio’s friend applied for several different positions before being hired in a different department. It worked out good for her so my paws are crossed it will work as well for your mom.

…but why take my word? The photo of Princess Sammie is proof enough.
Dawson and O’H–Thanks for your kind words. I’m about to interface with my cousins to see what needs to be taken care of at this point.
HOH–I love the irises, somewhat less stoked about the IRS business, but advise courage and patience. If there’s one thing the Feds do well, it’s stick with something until it’s resolved. (Although it may take some time to get routed to the right person–once that’s accomplished, the right person really will help.)
GLAD–I don’t think we’ve met formally, but I’m delighted by your news and offer congratulations.
Tupper–First, my greetings to your ‘rents and good wishes for the weekend. Yeas, students are funny and entitled, but the joke kind of wears off after the first 20 minutes (or six weeks, taking a term-length view) or so. Drat! Now I’ve thought of them again!

Howlers – a puppy cut is something no Sibe or Corgi will ever have to worry about.
We think your mom should apply for each and every job that comes down the pike that sounds interesting. She is, after all, in the driver’s seat as she currently has a job, and qualifications up the whazoo. So, if she applies and gets accepted, she gets to decide if the new offer is what she wants. When the right offer comes along, she can probably develop the job to be what she wants it to be.
Go for it, we say.

Howlers, What does a Communication Admin. person do? We are sure you are more than qualified.

Grass seed is planted in the back yard to repair all the damaged spots from moving the fence and to fill in the winter kill-off areas (something to do with dog pee, not exactly sure what that means). Got some pansies and violas planted in pots in the front.

Diane, Barb says if she can live to be 90 and independent she will feel blessed. Your aunt lived a good life.

Barb,
Manages the development and maintenance of a comprehensive plan that
addresses communication and educational needs.
Partners with project teams and business units as necessary to plan,
develop, and implement communications and changes to processes and
procedures. Consults with Legal and HR liaisons as needed.
Writes, creates, and/or edits publications and presentation materials. Identifies technology communication needs.
Provides educational material on how to use technology.
Acts as a communications expert, staying up to date with new
communications strategies, techniques, and distribution methods by
attending conferences, reading, and networking with experts in the field
of internal communications.

Home!…We are all home after a day of being at my other house, which looks very different than when I lived there, and we are tired…sniff!….But while we were plotting our escape everytime the door opened, my friend was cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning…wHeeze!…Then when we came home all tired out her mother wanted my friend to go get something for supper because she couldn’t be bothered to cook something up in that precious kitchen of hers…heh!heh!…So now, finally me and my friend are in that basement waiting to watch the late Rockies game…sniff!…They are playing the Giants, soooo the game does not start till 8:30 or something ridiculous like that…grump!…I swear we will be asleep before that happenes…wheeze!

Sneeze!….I do not know what to make of dat other house….sniff!…Rio tried to show me his big plant but it was no where ta be found…sneeze!…Then we were always in da way soes I just laid in a corner…snuffle!…Rio was beside himself checking every dern thing out…and also in everyone’s way…grunt!snort!sneeze!

Good night fellow plunderers.
Dear Macy’s Mom we wish you a good sleep and strength for the day to follow.
We are glad that the Storyteller is home and so happy that GLAD posted about the Plunder grandchild to be. October. That is more than 2 darn it all.

Humans tend to have small litters. I have no idea why. I’m having eight if I’m having one. That said, I do not judge if GLAD has a litter of one. I tried my paw at having a litter of one. Belle Starr is a pawful.

GLAD: I am the matriarch of the kennel. In addition to my firm, but loving paw there are some basics to child care that I hold dear and have never served me wrong: Keep them clean. Keep them fed. Don’t lose them.

ML: The Quilt is waiting for you. Tenzing restocked the snacks. Head bumps to you.

Macy’s Mom – there may be times tomorrow when the sadness is too much to bear. That’s when you can reach out to us, and know that this whole family is holding you close, helping you and Angie and Nicki get through the day. We are here for you.

Everyone who is there tomorrow will be there not only to honor your beloved husband, they are also there to show you that they too share your grief and loss, and that they will support you in your sorrow.

Stay strong, but know you do have people to lean on. We are sending you our love.

GLAD & OTAS: We are ready, willing and able to tend your pup. If you need a reference of our quality of care, Teddy the Ruff Rider’s folks should provide a glowing reference. Scratch that—just ask Teddy, not his folks.

Ditto what Amalia said so well. I will be thinking of ML and her family tomorrow.

Also to anyone that is up: I burnt the palm of my hand moving a kettle off the stove not realizing it was hot (I was broiling and didn’t realize that heat from the broiler was making the kettle hot). I have been clutching a cold gel pack wrapped in a dish towel. Anything else I should do? I need this hand!

fresh aloe vera is great but I don’t remember seeing a plant in your kitchen. Macy sends dainty licks.

HOH, my heel is about as high as the sole of that high foot cover. I wore them all day. My feet are not happy about it but they will get over it.

Niki went to the ER, got IV fluids and anti-nausea meds, and is on her way now via Rick’s sweet sister Connie and her husband Tim who drove three and a half hours to Austin and are now bringing her back to me.

Pink is better than black—Belle Starr agrees with this, but for different reasons. If I were there, I would give you smooching licks to make you feel better. You may also want to try putting ice cubes and water in a deep bowl so all of your paw gets the cooling effects.

This is the part II to my story about Iditarod. I know it’s middle of the night for some of you so hopefully this will get around as you find interest in it…. So, here it goes…

Leaving Nikolai, we were on the other end of 65 miles of trails that none of us would ever take a dog team down and the wounds from it were fresh in everyone’s minds. From no snow at all we left on beautiful trails. Hard and fast we made a great run towards our 24 hour layover. The dogs ran smooth and easy through the night. Stars, isolation from everyone and good trails were much needed.

Coming into McGrath always feels like going to see old friends and it welcomed us in from the trail. The village is a favorite of mine and has great resources for a longer break. The food is great, the dogs rest well and I started to recover from my injuries sustained during this particular race.

This is maybe more than most of you want to know but after going through the trail at high speed I had been thrown around a lot and needed to assess how bad off I was. McGrath has showers for the village in the city building where we stay and after a rest that was on my mind.

Usually I don’t shower on the race but this year it sounded like a good idea. Peeling off sweaty clothes revealed deep bruising on both sides of my body, at least a bruised rib (same one as before) and I suspected a bone fracture. The tree that broke my runner did that one. While this may sound bad, it wasn’t anything that some rest and time wouldn’t allow me to keep going and the shower didn’t hurt either. (At least I told myself this and after everything finishing seemed more important to me than a little soreness.)

After a shower, food, rest and most importantly working on the dogs I did discover that as I was traveling along I had worn a hole through my boots trying to keep the team in check. I wasn’t worried about continuing because this seemed to be the least of the obstacles I had faced even though I could put my hand through the heel of my boot. Fortunately another musher was switching out boots and lent me his old boots to finish the race with and so another hurdle was crossed. After 24 hours the team moved out smoothly and easily and left McGrath behind. It was the best departure I had ever left from a 24 hour break with.

Onto Ophir and towards Cripple. This section of trail covers a low mountain range and miles of cold country of -30 to -50 through valleys and rivers. I did most of this section at night and it was beautiful being out there by myself in wild and seldom traveled country. The only thing of note that happened on this section was when I went through Takotna they offered me a diet pepsi. This is pretty much what I live on and off I went with a can of soda. It exploded as all sodas do in the cold but good cafeine was worth it…. Besides it flaked away easily in the cold….

Now onto Ruby. It’s another long stretch but the trail was good. You get to travel past old ghost towns left over from Alaska’s gold rush days and you find yourself literally in the middle of nowhere. It’s not hard to imagine a step back in time to run trail with miners and trappers from 100 years agon. I marvel at the ability of people from another century who routinely travelled this country.

Now as I was traveling along I began to have a feeling like something wasn’t right back at home. It didn’t help that Rio kept jumping over the leader’s lines. He was a little excited by a female and kept causing tangles. When you’re tired it takes a lot of will power not to turn into a lunatic when your dogs do things like that over and over again. Combined with my suspicions that Rebecca had been lying to me about her health by the time I got to Ruby I was keyed up.

Feeding and caring the dogs (even Rio) I decided I needed to call Rebecca and see what was going on. When I reached her she said she was fine but she of course lied and said she was fine.
I knew it but could do little and pulled myself mentally back together. You have to understand that fatigue after 6 days and 500 or so miles in addition to constant physical activity just wears on you like a heavy coat. You have to be careful not to dwell on negative thoughts or worry. They can bore into you and that’s when people give up and pack it in. And so shrugging it off on we went.

(When I got home I learned that during this time she was at her worst and that she and also our whole neighborhood had mobilized to save the lives of the plunderer litter. There is something to intuition.)

The dogs as always just moved smoothly and with spirit. Despite frustrations from the previous run they just performed great. A year of work had really transformed these guys and I was proud of them. Into Galena we came and here they went down hard on the straw.

This had me worried as this was the first run that we came into a check point and I knew that their gas tank was low. I waited longer here to get their spirits up and also because I needed to shake the pack I’d been running with to that point. (My preference is to run by myself.)

Moving out of Galena they left but it took me nearly an hour to get their spirits up and the team moving well again. It turns out this would be the trend for the rest of my run on the Yukon river. I’ve forgotten to mention that the Yukon is wider than any river you’ve seen. As I understand it, it’s even wider than the Mississippi and it can wear on the dogs morale. Nothing different and wind bend after wide and long bend. Wind in your face and all around with nothing to change the view. Still after this year’s trail it would turn out that this would be the good times and I found myself not minding the river that much this year.

Eventually we made it to Kaltag and the chinks in the armour were starting to show by this stage of the race. This is a windy checkpoint and it’s a long haul to Unalakleet. Everyone either caught up to me or blew through in an effort to keep going. I decided to wait it out for the heat of the day to pass and for night to fall before leaving. Heading out to work on the team everyone left and I wondered if I was making the right call.

Leaving Kaltag I felt like I had blown my race. I had this goal in mind to get to Nome in 10 days and 1 hour. Packing extra food I decided to do this 80 some mile run in one shot and not camp to see if I could make up some time. Sticking to my original plan this strategy worked.

It turned out as I later found out that I had the fifth fastest time for that section of the trail and it showed. We passed a lot of teams and the dogs came screaming into Unalakleet. Excited and ready to finish well. I was happy about the turn around in the team.

The only catch was that 50 miles into this run, the snow once again disappeared. We were back to ice and dirt and I was a little concerned about what might be on the trail given what we had experienced. Fortunately though at least for that moment the only bad section was a 10 mile roller coaster ride of a trail on a frozen river that went up one side and slid in a frozen swell down the next. The team slid everywhere but as I said they still came into the next checkpoint with a good attitude.

From here the rest of the race got much more interesting. As I’ve rambled on this two part story has now become a three part narrative….

Stay tuned…

And as always, my grammar and spelling would be perfect if only the blog had a button to do it for me.

AJ, thank you so much for Part II. You put us right there with you. We love the idea of running past ghost towns with miners and trappers from 100 years ago. Somehow, we had read of the hole in the boot, and heard it was Danny Seavey’s boots. Is that right? We were worrit, because after Mom challenged Dallas for the last Amber Ale at the Mushers Banquet, she says he is shorter than her! How could his brother’s boots fit you?

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With thanks

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